A myriad of companies sprang up offering PC “boxes” or “clones” as they became known, but one company was changing the way PC’s were being sold to consumers, one company began to break the mould and that company was Gateway 2000.

By continually refreshing its “build to order” PC business, Gateway 2000 began to garner a loyal base of clients who preferred the new direct way of doing business. With so many companies offering PC’s in the early 1990’s, Gateway 2000became a beacon of trust and value in the market. The offering was simple, sell well built PC’s with trusted component suppliers, offer the best possible price through lower overheads, and back those sales with free lifetime technical support. That was the plan anyway!

From the birth of the home computer in the mid 1970’s to the introduction of the IBM 5150 in 1981, the PC or “Personal Computer” market was coming of age. Computer enthusiasts around the world played host to a range of exciting cost effective systems from companies like Atari, Commodore, Apple, Tandy, Sinclair and others, but by the early 1990’s it was the IBM PC Compatible that was carving out a commanding lead in the market. The proprietary computer systems began to die a slow death and the “PC”, running Microsoft Windows, was emerging victorious…